Old Spinning Wheel demolished in Hinsdale

The Old Spinning Wheel is shown under construction. (Duke Castle, Handout)

The beginning of the end came this week for the Old Spinning Wheel restaurant.

Demolition of the eatery fashioned as a rustic log cabin began Wednesday. It opened its doors in the 1930s and became a local gathering spot in Hinsdale.

The tear-down of the cream-colored structure at Ogden Avenue near the Tri-State Tollway comes as no surprise. Plans have been in the works for several years for construction of The Adventist Hinsdale Cancer Institute, a 54,000-square-foot, two-story facility, to be built in place of the restaurant and banquet house. It is scheduled to open in 2015.

During its heyday, the restaurant was set amid acres of well-tended gardens and opened its doors to brides and grooms, birthday celebrants, high school prom-goers and people who just wanted to eat a good meal. It was a destination for people from Hinsdale and from communities throughout the western suburbs.

In 2011, the Hinsdale Historical Museum hosted an exhibit about the restaurant and its history. The exhibit has closed, but the museum still holds information about the restaurant and its place in Hinsdale history in its archive, said Cindy Klima, president of the Hinsdale Historical Society..

Charles and Vacia Duncan opened the restaurant in 1935. Seven years later, they decided they needed more space and built the structure that is now being torn down at 421 E. Ogden Avenue.

Duke Castle of Lake Oswego, Ore., is the grandson of the founders. He provided memorabilia for the 2011 exhibit and recalls a restaurant that was filled with antiques — a spinning wheel, china decorated with designs of Currier and Ives prints, collections of pewter and copper – and two parrots. His grandmother, who grew up in Missouri, designed the gardens to have an antebellum look, and decided that the waitresses should be attired in calico-style dresses and white, lace-trimmed caps.

Opening a restaurant in the midst of a depression might seem foolhardy, but provided an escape that people craved, Castle said.

"They captured something special," he said. "It was the middle of the depression. It was sort of a theme park, but it wasn't a theme park. It was a restaurant."

The prices were right, too, even into the 1950s. An old restaurant review shows that fried chicken, baked ham and lobster thermidor were on the menu and were priced in the $2.25 to $3 range.

Castle said the restaurant's fare was basic by today's standards.

"At the time restaurants were not picked for their gourmet menus," said Castle. "It was more for the ambiance."

As a child, Castle often played on the grounds and has happy memories of those days. He recalled that the restaurant was cooled by an early version of air conditioning that included a pipe and large water tank.

"I broke the pipe and the water flooded the parking lot," said Castle. "My grandfather was furious."

The restaurant was operated by the Duncans until they retired in 1954 when it was leased to Fred Harvey. Harvey also operated other establishments, including five oases over the Illinois Tollway from 1959 to 1974.